“Nick and I have been friends since a couple weeks after everything went down,” Homme said, referring to the bassist’s firing from the band in 2004. “People don’t know that, and it would be awkward for me to run around making sure everyone knew it.”

Homme continued, “Nick recorded his new record at my studio, and then he was going to drop off some records and he said ‘Hey, need anyone to sing backup?’ And I was like ‘Actually, yeah, come on in.’ It’s that causal, and that’s a nice thing. It was easy. It’s nice to know someone since you were a little kid, and still know them.”

Working with his childhood friend was one of the smoothest things about the tumultuous process of recording . . . Like Clockwork, the band’s first LP in six years, Homme said. “We’d have these great victories and then something would go south for a bit, and we’d go, ‘It’s like clockwork!’ I think a sick sense of humor is what’s always been our preservation mechanism, so this time, we’re using that sick sense of humor for a title.”